Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) CEO Brian Roberts called a top Obama aide late last year in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade the President from endorsing strident Title II-based Internet regulation.
The news came out of a lengthy feature published in the Wall Street Journal Friday, which detailed the struggles currently being endured in D.C. corridors by Comcast's powerful lobbying machine.
The personal reach-out by Roberts himself, of course, demonstrates the high priority with which Comcast holds net neutrality legislation. It also demonstrates the limits of the conglomerate's political influence, with President Obama ultimately endorsing strong rules.
According to the WSJ report, Comcast employees contributed $337,000 to the President's re-election campaign in 2012, and Roberts has golfed with him in the past.
Also, a month before Comcast proposed its $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), the conglomerate invited a senior Justice Department antitrust official to a company party. The official demurred.
For more:
- read this Wall Street Journal story
- read this story from The Verge
Related links:
Republicans set to introduce alternative Internet-regulation bill
Cable industry speaks out against Obama's call to repeal anti-municipal broadband laws
Obama wants the FCC to support local broadband